"The Lord Gave Me Blessings Galore"

Ed Pohland is a slight man, with an easy smile, hands that belong to an artist, and a deep faith in God.

“When you meet him, you soon realize how important it is for him to share with the kids at the Ranch—both his faith and the blessings he has received from the Lord during his life,” says Lisa Cole, Development Officer from the Ranch, who has gotten to know Ed over the years.

In the mid-80’s, Ed Pohland received a mailing from Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch. He responded by sending a check, and then he called the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod District Office to learn more about the Ranch. Since then, he has kept up with what is going on at the Ranch by receiving mailings and visiting with staff in the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch Foundation office.

Ed had a very successful career in electronics as a technical illustrator—first making illustrations for instruction manuals and later creating schematics—a much more detailed illustration for the designers of the electronic instruments. For 25 years, Ed worked with a group at Tektronix that designed and built billion dollar testing instruments for integrated circuits.

Every time Ed received a raise, he bumped up his giving. “That absolutely worked for me,” he said. “The Lord gave me blessings galore. I learned long ago that the more you give, the more you get in return.”

When he retired after 35 years in the business, Ed decided he was tired of the drizzle, so he moved to Sun City, Arizona. More recently, he moved to Lutheran Haven, an LCMS-affiliated retirement facility in Florida. Before he moved, he needed to sell his home, and his financial advisor suggested he consider using it to fund a gift annuity.

He called the Ranch, where he worked with Cole and a representative from the LCMS Foundation to set it all up. He gifted his home to the LCMS Foundation, they set it up as an annuity, and the proceeds of the annuity will go to Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch after Ed’s death.

Ed feels like he has always known about the Ranch, and it holds a special place in his heart. “I was never married and don’t have any kids of my own. Supporting the Ranch is a way for me to help young people through an organization that is affiliated with our church body. As time went on, I really enjoyed doing it.”

He encourages others to never get to the point where they think they’ve done enough. “Nobody has ever done enough,” Ed said. “Considering what Christ has done for us, the little we do is not a payback. It’s just showing our appreciation.”